Landlord/tenant question

[TheTravellers]

Hi all,

I probably need to get a lawyer to answer this one, but we don't currently use/have one, so if anybody has a recommendation for one, I'd appreciate it, it's kind of strange situation.

We are currently renting a house, have given a 30-day notice, will turn in our keys at the end of the 30 days. But we're responsible for paying the lease and utilities until it's re-rented or the lease ends. After we leave, we plan to leave a sign up on the thermostat that says "If outside temp is above 85 degrees, please keep it set on cool and 85 degrees. If outside temp is below 55 degrees, please keep it set on heat and at 55 degrees". If one of their leasing agents shows the house, turns the thermostat down or up beyond those parameters and leaves it that way, we get screwed by high gas/electric bills (we have no idea how long it will take to re-rent it, could be months). Is there any way we could have recourse against them if that happens and we get a nasty surprise on our bill (I suspect they wouldn't do it intentionally, but may just forget to set it back to what I asked them to)?

[DowntownMan]

Hi all,

I probably need to get a lawyer to answer this one, but we don't currently use/have one, so if anybody has a recommendation for one, I'd appreciate it, it's kind of strange situation.

We are currently renting a house, have given a 30-day notice, will turn in our keys at the end of the 30 days. But we're responsible for paying the lease and utilities until it's re-rented or the lease ends. After we leave, we plan to leave a sign up on the thermostat that says "If outside temp is above 85 degrees, please keep it set on cool and 85 degrees. If outside temp is below 55 degrees, please keep it set on heat and at 55 degrees". If one of their leasing agents shows the house, turns the thermostat down or up beyond those parameters and leaves it that way, we get screwed by high gas/electric bills (we have no idea how long it will take to re-rent it, could be months). Is there any way we could have recourse against them if that happens and we get a nasty surprise on our bill (I suspect they wouldn't do it intentionally, but may just forget to set it back to what I asked them to)?

Can you set the thermostat to a schedule? Usually if it is on a schedule and is manually changed, it reverts to scheduled temp after two hours

[Pete]

You can now buy a programmable thermostat for about $20 at Home Depot.

Might be worth it if there isn't already one installed.

[traxx]

One; how did you end up in a lease agreement that makes you responsible for the rent and utilities for a place that you no longer live? What if they don't find a tenant for 18 months? Any time that I've ever rented, I give notice and then my responsibility is over at the end of my move-out month.

Two; if the utilities is in your name then have them turned off at that address. It really doesn't make any sense that you should still be providing utilities for a place that you don't own, rent, nor live. That makes about as much sense as paying then next guy's cable bill.

[catch22]

One; how did you end up in a lease agreement that makes you responsible for the rent and utilities for a place that you no longer live? What if they don't find a tenant for 18 months? Any time that I've ever rented, I give notice and then my responsibility is over at the end of my move-out month.

Two; if the utilities is in your name then have them turned off at that address. It really doesn't make any sense that you should still be providing utilities for a place that you don't own, rent, nor live. That makes about as much sense as paying then next guy's cable bill.

1: Most people do not rent month to month, but sign a lease. If you exit the premises before your lease expires you can either pay the remainder of the lease (until premises is leased by someone else) or pay a steep penalty to buy out your contract. You can't just end a contract early and wipe your hands of the responsibility.

2. Most leasing companies require you to have utilities on for the duration of your lease, whether you use the place or not. Not fulfilling that is considered breaking your lease and subject to the steep contract buy-out penalty.

Gone are the days of nice reasonable, month-to-month renting. It's ALL by lease now, and it's almost all managed by powerful leasing companies that are complete bullies and not flexible at all to anything. They are fee-collector companies now.

I was charged a $100 late fee by my last apartment complex because I messed up my payment. My rent total was $875.90 every month and for some reason I fat fingered it as a 874.90. So I shorted them $1 of rent, despite always having 100% on time payments (and overpay some months). They didn't even bother to call me, email me, or tell me when picking up mail or packages at the desk. I receive a notice of eviction in my mail box a few weeks later. I was so furious words cannot even describe.

[Jersey Boss]

Is it spelled out in your lease agreement that you are responsible for providing utility services in the event of early termination? How many months are you leaving early?

[chuck5815]

A lot of states limit late fees to some statutory amount. I'm not sure what the law is in Oklahoma, but that $100 late fee sounds absurd. I wouldn't be surprised if that's an illegal fee.

As for utilities, you might consider making a buy-out offer. It should really be something nominal, like $100/mo. My thought is they most likely wouldn't come after you for unpaid utilities on the balance of your lease--just not worth their time. So they would probably appreciate getting some $$$ upfront for that cost.

[kevinpate]

It has become very, very common for a residential lease to require one, as a condition of having the lease, to agree to be responsible for the utilities and the lease payment to the end of the lease, whether you leave early or not.

When the lease is written this way, there is no requirement or incentive for the lease company to get your place rented again. They already have the lessee on the hook for full payment of the lease, and the utilities during the lease period.

My darling girl and her hub signed a lease like that. When they found a place to purchase, the company had zero interest in working any solution with them.

That lease ends soon. They will finish moving out the last of their items 1.5 days before lease end. It has not been shown to anyone. It has not been made ready for a new tenant.

They have kept their keys and the control of the property as a very nice storage space, being as they had to pay full freight on it. Once they do leave this month, then the company can begin their process to find a new tenant and make it ready.

That company would have been better off to work with them, accept the lease buyout they offered and not lose any payments along the way. Oh well, live and learn.

As for the original poster here, a programmable unit may be your only hope, but of course, it can be tinkered with or removed. Unless there is a solid commitment by them to find a new tenant, you may get stuck for it all.

[TheTravellers]

Thanks for all the replies, did not know programmable thermostats were that cheap, will check them out!

Here are the details - it's a house owned by a large property management company, our lease ends on 5/31/17 and the lease/early vacate notice says we're responsible for the monthly payment, as well as utilities and yard care until they either find a new tenant or the lease ends. At the end of the 30 days, we have to turn our keys in, even though we're on the hook for everything after that until they find a new tenant or the lease ends, which is a weird grey area.

I got laid off in Seattle, was in the last month of collecting unemployment, found a job here, flew out 3 weeks before the job started, only had 3 days to find a place, and this was literally our only option on our last day here due to flakeouts by other landlords, so we had to sign it or have no place to move to and a new job starting in a couple of weeks. I spoke with the owner/landlord a couple of weeks ago and he said "I had lots of people leaving in the middle of winter and it took months to rent the houses out, that's why I created my lease that way", and there is *no* lease buy-out option as there has been at every other place we've lived across the country (about 10 at last count). I tried to work with him, but he's basically greedy/your standard capitalist and had no interest in that. And it's not worth breaking the lease and hoping they would settle, they'd most likely go as far as they could to get their money and interest and fees and and and and, from what I've seen of them.

Basically, we just got incredibly lucky finding a house that "ticked all the boxes" on all our lists, and it was only the 4th house we looked at, which is miraculous, never thought we'd ever see such a thing, and it's in great shape and in a great neighborhood (Venice), so we had to get it now, could not pass it up!

All we're hoping for is that karma/fate will smile on us and do good for us for once and get a tenant fairly soon in order to make up for some of the bad decisions we've made about housing over the years... BTW, if anybody knows someone that wants to rent a 3BR/2BA 1600 sf place around NW 164th/May/Penn, please let me know and I'll hook you up with the property management company.

[Jeepnokc]

Thanks for all the replies, did not know programmable thermostats were that cheap, will check them out!

Here are the details - it's a house owned by a large property management company, our lease ends on 5/31/17 and the lease/early vacate notice says we're responsible for the monthly payment, as well as utilities and yard care until they either find a new tenant or the lease ends. At the end of the 30 days, we have to turn our keys in, even though we're on the hook for everything after that until they find a new tenant or the lease ends, which is a weird grey area.

I got laid off in Seattle, was in the last month of collecting unemployment, found a job here, flew out 3 weeks before the job started, only had 3 days to find a place, and this was literally our only option on our last day here due to flakeouts by other landlords, so we had to sign it or have no place to move to and a new job starting in a couple of weeks. I spoke with the owner/landlord a couple of weeks ago and he said "I had lots of people leaving in the middle of winter and it took months to rent the houses out, that's why I created my lease that way", and there is *no* lease buy-out option as there has been at every other place we've lived across the country (about 10 at last count). I tried to work with him, but he's basically greedy/your standard capitalist and had no interest in that. And it's not worth breaking the lease and hoping they would settle, they'd most likely go as far as they could to get their money and interest and fees and and and and, from what I've seen of them.

Basically, we just got incredibly lucky finding a house that "ticked all the boxes" on all our lists, and it was only the 4th house we looked at, which is miraculous, never thought we'd ever see such a thing, and it's in great shape and in a great neighborhood (Venice), so we had to get it now, could not pass it up!

All we're hoping for is that karma/fate will smile on us and do good for us for once and get a tenant fairly soon in order to make up for some of the bad decisions we've made about housing over the years... BTW, if anybody knows someone that wants to rent a 3BR/2BA 1600 sf place around NW 164th/May/Penn, please let me know and I'll hook you up with the property management company.

I do not handle landlord tenant cases but I have a problem with a lease that you are paying rent and are responsible for the house but you don't have access to. If you are required to keep utilities on and I am assuming be responsible for any damage to house if it weather freezes pipes, etc....then you should have the means to ensure that. May be worth having a lawyer look at your lease.

[catch22]

One of the many shady tactics of these downright dirty leasing companies. I hate dealing with them as they are all the same.

[TheTravellers]

I do not handle landlord tenant cases but I have a problem with a lease that you are paying rent and are responsible for the house but you don't have access to. If you are required to keep utilities on and I am assuming be responsible for any damage to house if it weather freezes pipes, etc....then you should have the means to ensure that. May be worth having a lawyer look at your lease.

I did actually ask the owner of the property management company that owns the house (they bought it from the original owner a couple of years ago) about that exact type of situation (we've had A/C problems for the past year and I asked if the house caught fire because of the crappy HVAC system or the carpet got soaked because hail took out a window and there was nobody here to mitigate it) and he said "no, you're not responsible", but that was on the phone, not in writing or recorded... They have been fairly decent regarding most everything except getting out of the lease, so I don't think it would be a problem, and I think if they tried to get us to pay for damages when we weren't in physical possession of the house, they'd have a hard time winning anything. Good point, though, thx.

[bradh]

If you don't mind me asking, how big is your fam? Was getting a short term lease at an apartment not an option?

[traxx]

If you don't mind me asking, how big is your fam? Was getting a short term lease at an apartment not an option?

That's my thought. I would've done a six month or year lease on a 2 bedroom which would give enough time to regroup and look seriously at buying a house in the mean time.

[TheTravellers]

If you don't mind me asking, how big is your fam? Was getting a short term lease at an apartment not an option?

There's only me and my wife and a cat. We started looking late last year, stopped for a bit due to wife getting laid off, then started looking again, had no idea we'd find something within a couple of weeks, and couldn't pass it up, so we just decided to deal with it and buy it and hope for the best, but prepared to accept the worst. And after living in a house for the past 9 years, I don't think we could've gone back to an apt. anyway, we're too old and have too much stuff for that now.

[Richard at Remax]

I own and manage all 5 of my rental properties. I would never have it in there that they would have to pay the utilities until I have it re-rented. Only thing is I take the security deposit as a penalty.

I know life happens and it's dumb to screw someone over like that so I make it as clean as a break as possible.

[catch22]

I own and manage all 5 of my rental properties. I would never have it in there that they would have to pay the utilities until I have it re-rented. Only thing is I take the security deposit as a penalty.

I know life happens and it's dumb to screw someone over like that so I make it as clean as a break as possible.

You sound like a good, classic landlord that is honest and reasonable in his business affairs. Unfortunately, a lot of landlords have outsourced the day-to-day management to large leasing companies that also manage apartment complexes. Those companies have no interest in being reasonable. They are parasites.

[TheTravellers]

Good to hear, worthy cook, we need more non-greedy landlords like you. The property mgmt company always takes a bit too long to fix maintenance issues, always waits until something's *completely* broken before fixing it, always takes 2-3 calls to get them to do it, etc., so they eventually come through, but they don't spend any money at all unless it's absolutely necessary, so I'm not surprised they're asses about getting out of a lease. One place we rented from many moons ago actually had a buyout clause if you were buying a house - penalty was less than if you just needed to leave, they were good landlords, ah, memories, lol....